


Plus One

by earlgreymanatee



Category: Silicon Valley (TV)
Genre: M/M, Marriage, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-15
Updated: 2017-01-15
Packaged: 2018-09-17 19:05:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9338849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/earlgreymanatee/pseuds/earlgreymanatee
Summary: Vignettes of Jared and Dinesh’s wedding, from Tara’s perspective.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mintywrites](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mintywrites/gifts).



Tara didn’t know whose decision it had been to announce the engagement to her at the same time as Erlich and Richard, while she was visiting. Most of the time, when she was visiting Gilfoyle, she more or less didn’t hang out with Erlich and Richard, so it had been a little strange when Jared asked all three of them into the living room for an announcement. They sat them all down on the couch, Jard, Dinesh, and Gilfoyle stood across from them. Gilfoyle was crossing his arms and looked bored, but the fact that he was participating meant that he cared, Tara knew. Dinesh looked antsy and Jared was positively beaming. 

Erlich looked around suspiciously, “Is this an intervention?” he asked.

“No,” Dinesh sighed, “this isn’t even about you for once.”

“Oh ok,” he said, still wary, “None of you are dying are you? Or pregnant?”

Dinesh looked like he was already done with the whole thing before it even started, “Wh- Who would be pregnant? Why was that your third guess?”

Richard also looked worried, but in a more quiet way, “Seriously, is everything ok guys?”

Jared smiled, and looked back and forth between Gilfoyle and Dinesh, looking like he just could not hold it in anymore.

“Better than ok, Richard. In fact….Dinesh and I are getting married.”

Tara squealed wordlessly. There were few things she loved more than weddings. She knew a lot of poly people were pretty split on the concept, some, her lovely boyfriend included, thought of them as an outdated concept that involved the state too much in relationships. She personally, felt that she loved relationships and dating, and loved a good party and an excuse to dress up, so why wouldn’t she love weddings?

“Holy fuck!” Erlich exclaimed, “Congratulations. When did this happen?”

“Just a week or so ago,” said Dinesh.

“Wait…..if it’s that recent...does that mean you haven’t done much wedding planning yet?” Erlich asked, already pulling his phone out. “Jared, I’m sending you a spreadsheet of the best local caterers. I will also send you the number of my tailor. Richard, I’m also sending it to you. No way are you attending any sort of event where you might be seen with me with any of the suits you own.”

Richard protested to this, but Erlich was already off in party-planning mode. Jared seemed thrilled about it and Dinesh stood in the background, seeming happy somebody else was taking care of taking care of the ins and outs of actually getting the wedding together.

Gilfoyle slipped over next to her, dodging getting swept up in whatever Erlich was doing.

“I have so many people I have to text!” she told him.

“What? Who do you need to tell? You hardly know anybody that knows them,” Gilfoyle said.

“Oh, I keep people up to date on you guys,” she glanced at her phone, “See! Jess already sends her congratulations!”

“Who is Jess?”

“I’ve told you, silly, she’s Elle’s girlfriend’s wife. They have a kid, I babysit him sometimes.”

“Of course, how could I forget,” he said dryly.

Tara shouted into the other room, “Jared and Dinesh! Come here so I can take a picture!”

***

That night she and Gilfoyle were laying in his bed dozing off.

“So. Are you going to be in the wedding? I mean, I know you are going, and that you aren’t the one getting married, but like, are you going to be in ceremony at all?” Tara asked.

Gilfoyle opened his eyes and looked at her evenly. “Probably. I mean, if I’m not in it, then it’s just two people getting married, which is just boring, as a concept. Somebody has to keep it scandalous.”

“It sounded like Erlich might be taking care of the scandalous part.”

“He’ll make the party over the top sure, but my presence fucks with the concept of the ceremony on a fundamental level.”

Tara giggled. He was eternally serious and committed to his rebellion in a way she loved.

“What will your title be? Shared Boyfriend of the Loving Couple?”

“I was thinking more along the lines of ‘Co-Mistress’,” he said, thoughtfully.

“Side-Piece (Both Sides)”

“Homonormativity-Destabilizer”

“Best Man….Boyfriend of Honor,” she laughed, sleepily.

“The Couple’s Plus One,” he suggested, clearly on a roll. “What about you, you are coming right?”

“Oh my god, why do people keep asking me, of course I am. I have so many airline miles saved up from coming to visit you, one extra visit next year is totally doable.”

“You won’t feel to abandoned if I’m off with the couple?” he asked, in a rare moment of directness of affection and caring.

“Oh please, you nerds forget that I’m great at making friends and actually love parties. Also, weddings are, like, for drunkenly hooking up with near strangers. I don’t need you around messing up my game, dude.”

He gave her a rare smile and kissed her forehead, before rolling on his back and dozing off. Tara watching him doze for a moment, thinking. She had been relieved when Gilfoyle had started dating Jared and Dinesh. She had always felt like their relationship was somewhat unbalanced. When he had living in Boston, they had been only been a little more serious than friends-with-benefits, and it was unclear what was going to happen when he moved to California. It ended up that the outcome was “she flew out to California twice a year to see him and the two of them had a blast fucking each other’s brains out, and then she happily flew back to her life in Boston.”

But still, she had worried that their relationship was unbalanced, since she was all he had for so long, and she had a whole life and other, more serious, relationships. His dating Jared and Dinesh brought a new level of balance to their relationship that had not existed before. And she liked Jared and Dinesh too. Last time she had visited, she and Jared bonded when she drew an elaborate chart explaining her extended poly dating sphere and shown him her color-coded google calendar. He had been excited to implement the shared calendar idea with Dinesh and Gilfoyle.

For all his crankiness about hating marriage and weddings, she felt that deep down he was enjoying the whole thing. He loved being contrary, and this was a huge thing to be contrary about for several whole months. He would be in his element

***  
Over the next several months, Tara was included on the wedding planning Group Text, which comprised of the couple, their boyfriend, Erlich because he insisted, Bighead because somebody added him by accident and he either did not notice or care, because he never contributed to the discussion, but never took himself off the chat either, and Tara.

Tara was added supposedly to offer a Woman’s Opinion on some of the wedding decisions, and also because she had helped a handful of partners and friends plan their weddings in the past, but Tara suspected it was so that there would be an extra person to vote against some of Erlich’s worse ideas (chocolate fountains are messy, ice sculptures are tacky, only half that amount of booze is needed, no there should not be a designated area to smoke weed), especially considering that Gilfoyle would occasionally support Erlich’s suggestions, just to be contrary. Also, Erlich was still vaguely intimidated by her so she was capable of laying down the law to him the way the rest of them weren’t.

“Come on Erlich,” she texted, in reply to his ideas for wild bachelor parties “you know Dinesh and Jared. Neither of them would enjoy anything you would possibly come up with for a bachelor party. Save your suggestions for somebody who would appreciate them.”

Her phone showed that Dinesh was typing for a moment, perhaps objecting that he could, in theory, enjoy a bachelor party, but then gave up knowing she was right. 

Erlich replied, “Good point Tara, no use in wasting an amazing bachelor party on people who like to go to bed at 10pm."

***

The ceremony, despite Erlich’s best efforts, was lovely. Tara had started crying early and hard. She couldn’t help it, she was a sap. She hoped nobody would pay attention to her, since Jared was also tearing up through the entire ceremony. Dinesh seemed too nervous to cry, but overall very happy. Gilf was acting like Gilf, which was to say, not showing much emotion one way or another for the entire morning leading up to the wedding. Unsure exactly what role he should play in the wedding, he had ended up bringing the rings to both grooms and then acted as a kind of shared best man.

Some people in the audience seemed a little shock when, after the grooms kissed, Gilfoyle stepped between them and proceeded to kiss Jared, and then before Dinesh could react, turning and kissed him as well. It was beautiful, though he did perhaps put a little more tongue into it than was tasteful. 

After the ceremony, while Tara was fixing her makeup in the bathroom from her cry, an older woman (one of Jared’s friends?) commented to her on what a nice ceremony it was.

“Yes, it was a beautiful wedding,” she agreed.

“You seemed particularly moved. I saw you crying through the whole thing. Are you close to the couple?”

Tara hesitated, considering giving a non-answer, but decided Gilf would be proud of her if she tried to be mildly scandalous, and he had already frenched both the newlyweds in front of the entire wedding anyway. “Not particularly, but their boyfriend is also my boyfriend. They are my Boyfriends-in-Law. So, I’m part of the family you could say.” 

She nodded politely, in a way that suggested she absolutely did not get it, but thought that Tara seemed like a lovely girl, and wandered off.

Tara returned her make up to her purse, fresh and ready for the reception, prepared to both have a great time, and also to cry all the makeup right off again if she saw Gilfoyle, Dinesh, or Jared in a couple's dance.


End file.
